Canadians are sick and tired of nasty liberal identity politics

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

By: Candice Malcolm

Canada is not a racist country, and most Canadians are not racist people. It’s strange that this even needs to be said, but given the rise of divisive identity politics and ugly race-baiting in the news these days, it’s worth stating and restating.

That’s not to say that racism doesn’t exist. It does – in every society around the world and throughout history. There is, however, an important difference between individual cases of racism – which we should join together to condemn – and so-called institutional or systemic racism.

Left-wing activists insist that Canada is a horrible and racist society – so racist, in fact, that our laws and institutions are embedded with racial biases and bigotry. But these activists can’t point to instances of supposed “white privilege” racism in the law, so they rely on rhetoric and anecdotal evidence.

If people from one ethnic or religious background commit more crimes and go to jail, the Left blames systemic racism. They exonerate the individual for his or her actions, and blame society.

These tactics used by Canada-hating activists have recently been picked up by the Trudeau government.

The 2018 budget was rife with postmodern rhetoric and buzzwords. The government makes every decision through a “gendered intersectionality lens” said one Trudeau government minister. It was a historic budget for “racialized Canadians,” said another, boasting about tens of millions spent on various government programs that divide us along racial lines and reward some Canadians based on their skin colour.

Next, news broke that the Trudeau government was planning a cross-country tour to investigate racism in Canada. “The government said it wants to create a new strategy to counter systemic racism and religious discrimination,” according to The Globe & Mail.

When journalist Robert Fife criticized Trudeau and said Canada isn’t a racist society (giving the example of how students in Canadian schools embrace friendships across racial lines) he was met with a fury of criticism, most prominently from Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes.

“To suggest that systemic racism does not exist, makes me question your ability to investigate stories of the Canadian experience without bias,”wrote the MP on Twitter.

This is the same MP who told Conservative MP Maxime Bernier to “check your privilege and be quiet” after Bernier criticized the Liberal’s race-baiting budget.

Caesar-Chavannes thinks Bernier has no right to speak about race, based only on his skin colour. She also thinks that Fife has no right to be a journalist simply because he rejects the Liberal’s narrative on systemic racism.

These outbursts by Caesar-Chavannes led to criticism from Canadians who are sick and tired of being demonized through identity politics. In response, Caesar-Chavannes turned herself into the victim, releasing a selfie video of herself crying over the criticism.

Liberal partisans quickly rallied behind the MP, spinning the truth to claim that Caesar-Chavannes was being bullied because of race.

The opposite is true. This MP tried to bully others into silence based on their race. Her race-baiting tactics backfired, and so she decided to play the victim and pretend this is yet another example of racism against her.

Canada is a great country, and the fact that MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes – an immigrant from Grenada – has risen to such a prominent position in our society is evidence that Canada is not the racist and bigoted country she makes it out to be.